G36

About

The G36 is the assault rifle of the German Armed Forced and its most common weapon.

It is a calibre 5.56 × 45 mm rifle and can be used by both left handed and right handed soldiers.

German soldiers with standard G36.

Except for the barrel and the breech it is completely made out of a fibre glass reinforced plastic, which makes it very lightweight.

G36 with 100 rounds drum magazine

It has three fire modes: semi automatic, fully automatic and burst mode (3 shots). In fully automatic mode it has a fire rate of 750 rounds per minute. The rifles autoloader works with gas operation.

reflex visor on top and the three times magnification scope under it

The effective range of this weapon in its standard version is 500 metres. The basic version has a three times magnification scope for longer range engagements and a reflex visor on top of it for short ranged firefights.

G36 variants

There are 3 main variants: G36, G36k and G36c. The main difference between them is the barrel length.

the three main versions

Additionally, the G36 and the G36k also exist in a so called "V" variant. It is the same but without the sight setup on top.

The trick to differentiate them is easy: count the cooling slits in the hand guard.

The long G36 has 6 cooling slits, the shorter G36k has 4 and the shortest G36c has 2.

The rifles of these elite paratroopers are G36k, because they have 4 cooling slits in the handguard.

If the cooling slits are not visible, because it has a different handguard, then you must judge the version by its general length.

AG40-2 (AG36)

G36 with AG40

The AG40 is a 40mm grenade launcher that can be mounted under the barrel of the G36. It can be used to fight lightly armoured targets on an effective range of 350 metres. But it can also be used to fire illumination and smoke grenades, aswell as non-lethal ones.

G36V with AG40. The modern, electronic optic is the light-brown thing on top of the rifle and infront of the regular optics.

It can either be used with an iron sight or with a modern optic that is mounted separately on the weapon.

The AG40 weights 1.8 kg with the electric optic and unloaded.

operators

GSG9 officer with either a G36KV or a G36C

The German military uses the main versions G36 and G36k with its sub variants. It does NOT use the G36c.

However, the G36c is used by German police special forces.

spanish soldier with a G36KV

The G36 is used by the military of various countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Spain, Egypt, Portugal etc.

But it is especially common among police units and police special forces of many countries. You can find the complete list in the Wikipedia link below.

Additionally Germany supplied the Kurdish Peshmerga in Northern Iraq with 8000 G36 for the fight against the Islamic State.